The Use of Anon Lazy? · 5:31am Jun 25th, 2021
I find myself agreeing with this. (There has been some talk about this recently in the Human in Equestria group) Don't get me wrong, he's useful for funny one-shots and short sex stories. Yes, I Bendy lord of trashy Anon Second Person fics knows they are trash.
But for 'real' stories you better off using a named character. I also feel I want to try to move away from Second Person, to First Person and Third Person. In either one, I may have to describe how my character looks like. They are not a stand-in as 'you' when I use Anon in Second Person.
But... if a silly story comes to my mind, I will happily use Anon and throw yet another Second Person story at you.
That said, one of my more recent stories is in First Person. It's a somewhat super cereal story, which is very rare from the likes of me. The story is: Friendship is Optimal: Comforting Lies.
There are good second person stories, but yes Anon stories drown them out. They are indeed lazy writing tropes and tend to be bad, hence why 4chan /mlp is shit.
5540835
Do you think Anon is useful for comedy stories?
I went to 4chan /mlp once on the My Massive Pony Thread a good while ago. Got nothing but abuse for the most part for no real good reason. Was seeking advice from macro lovers in writing macro stories. (there aren't many macro writers, so I thought someone would be interested) Got nothing of value for the most part. Never came back since.
5540836
Definitely for sure
If you want good macro 4chan stuff go to huge humans, it has macro and giantesses and such. Real good stuff. Plus mlp is alot of abuse threads.
But good second person stories that are long and stuff are real nice when you find em, like any of Holy's works. Your stuff is great too.
It really depends. Anon is usually an author insert where they don't wanna use themselves directly as a character. Yes, it can be lazy. Most of the more serious Anon stories usually has him/her being a human-in-pony form. I'd like to see more serious stories involving the human Anon. You could even go dark and have it something to do with Equestrian magic when humans cross into the pony's world and have him/her slowly losing their former memories and personality as the magic of Equestria slowly overwrites them. It might also be cool to have an HiE involving Anon and a normal human, where in Anon's world all humans are some shade of green and are all named Anon-hyphen-something last name.
Another way to make it dark is to have Anon originally have been a regular human, but committed a heinous enough crime to warrant a severe punishment, but not so sever that it incurs a death penalty or banishment, and is forced into a man in the iron mask-type thing that erases his/her features, covering his/her face and body with a body stocking or enchantment, and has their name forcibly changed to Anonymous. Basically it's supposed to be one of the more severe punishments that all ponies fear. You could have Anon come to the world several years before as a young man/woman and committed the crime.
Another dark story idea could be that Anon suffered a terrible accident when he/she came to Equestria and the ponies put him/her back together(figuratively). But because the ponies have never seen a human before and he/she is suffering permanent memory loss(kinda like a Hancock situation, minus the super powers), he/she thinks their skin tone is green, they have a featureless face and think their name is Anonymous.
Alternately, Anon could be a regular human, with a regular human name, who is wearing a green body stocking that makes him/her look featureless as a Nightmare Night costume.
It could also be some sort of gimp suit the human wears as part of a BDSM role play where the human along with the pony(or whatever creature you prefer) pretends to be a nameless, featureless sex slave for the bedroom.
5540838
I'll consider your advice. 4chan does not seem very good for productive conversation, however.
And thanks for considering my stories good. Quite a lot don't think so. I'm kind of you either you love me/or hate me, guy when it comes to my stories.
5540840
Those are some pretty good story ideas. Could be a deconstruction story of the Anon trope. A human who did have a name, but he begins to forget it, and loses his mind. And he finds himself forgetting even more the more he has sex with ponies.
5540841
Pretty sure its because of the fetishes in ur story people dislike bomb stories based on fetishes. Like cuts on male or macro for example.
5540843
Yeah, some of my more vanilla-based stories do better. Without totally insane fetishes with giant macro growth ponies. I love big ponies.... they sexy.
5540845
Same, personally I'm more of a fan of big humans and anthros but yeah same ballpark sorta
I dont know. I find it easier to care about 'anon' than I do about named characters in alot of the stories I have read. I can understand the dislike for using it as trope, but I feel it comes down to the story itself. A prime example is Some Leeches To Ne'er Come Down Again (anon/chrysalis romance). I ended caring so much for the character that him being Anon didnt phase me in the slightest, and I really feel if he was named proper, I wouldn't have been as invested. This could be attributed to his writing though.
This may also be attributed to the nature of FiM fanfics in general, as i have no problem bonding with named ponies.
Despite this though, I'm trying to avoid naming my human in my second person stories, so the reader can input their own thoughts and greetings into the narrative. Is it good? Probably not, but it's a fun exercise none the less. And I enjoy writing it.
So yeah, is the use of Anon lazy? Depends entirely on the story for me.
5540852
I suppose so. Anon has its place in fan fiction. I find him fun to write.
Even in non-fan fiction, like Link from The Legend of Zelda, or Commander Sheperd from Mass Effect. They are somewhat a stand-in as you in the story to some degree.
I have a weird relationship with the Anon character and story.
I think when I first started reading here 'Anon Stories' did not make sense to me.
I come from FanFic so I have never heard of or ran into stories where the author never named the main character.
To me it really felt ... lazy? Like just name the character, give them some description, and have fun.
I think over time I just sort of got used to Anon single chapters and full length stories.
You are right, where short stories and single chapter stories ARE where Anon makes their name, but they also have Amazing multi chapter stories too.
so eh
5540853
Shepard is a good example of an anon actually. The first name can be altered as they are always called by surname or rank (Commander Anon Shepard lol) this is a good way to circumvent the anon issue, using a rank or nickname instead.
5540854
I guess, it really depends. Everyone has their tastes.
5540855
Note that this is because the dialogue is voiced: there's no reasonable way to account for the millions of things you could have entered, so they cheat.
Personally Anon is good for a single or a 5 chapter mini-story. But for a long multi story that has atleast 10 chapters a name is sorta need it unless the human isn't the main focus
5541094
Yeah. That seems reasonable.
Ah, yes. My stories are lazy. How could I have been so blind to how lazy I am.
I'm not a fan of Anon stories. I know they help some folks, but for me they pull me right out of the story. It's as blaring as Hello, [INSERT NAME HERE]! I love the way your eye color is so [INSERT YOUR EYE COLOR HERE]. I've never met a [STATE GENDER HERE]. I know that's not what it actually is, but that's how I read it.
For me, I can become whomever is the protagonist in the story. I am Bilbo Baggins, I'm the time traveler (who doesn't have a name, but it's told from a perspective where it doesn't come up), I'm also the narrator of the War of the Worlds, who again has no name, but it doesn't really come up because of how the story is told. I'm Pierre Arronax, I'm Katniss Everdeen, and so on and so on. I can become these people without any issue. When "Anon" is actually used, it's a filler name, like the story isn't done. It may seem like so little, but it drastically affects the quality of stories for me.
I don't mean to step on toes, but you seemed like you were open to opinions.
5541241
It's fine I don't get easily upset over all. I thank you for your input.
5541229
You are proof that isn't the case.
To appreciate the "is Anon a lazy character" debate, you first must know what Anonymous the character is. The answer is that he is no-one: he is a vessel for the reader to insert themselves into the story. It's why the question "what kind of name is anonymous, it's literally a word" never comes out of a pony's mouth; it's a stand-in for YOUR name. It would almost be incorrect to refer to him as a distinguished character.
A character with a name like Daniel or Matt or Susan are expected to have a solid personality and identity. Daniel is a character who doesn't like change, appreciates collecting glass figurines, is allergic to blueberries, and has complex and plot-relevant opinions on current events. Matt's a guy who likes action and speed, and thinks that books are for nerds, and who loves snacking on popcorn at night and doesn't give a single shit about politics. These guys are plot characters and exist in their own right.
But who is Anonymous?
Anon is, of course, short for Anonymous. This "character" originated on 4chan, where every poster is given the moniker "Anonymous". At its base, completely disconnected from horse fanfiction, "Anonymous" with his suit, green skin, and zero facial features, is meant to be the embodiment of (well) anonymity. Anyone could be Anonymous. Any race, any gender, any age; anyone, with any personality and any interest.
That's why Anonymous in Equestria stories don't give him that many personality traits, outside a bland average. If you give him specific interests and opinions and a developed personality, you lose the ability to allow him to represent anyone. He's meant to allow readers to easily slip into his shoes, and the second-person perspective of the vast majority of these stories helps emphasize that. Making him a specific character with real name and all that other stuff I just mentioned will rob him of that ability. If people want to self-insert, then they would be able to identify with "some guy between the ages of 21 and 31, average height, average weight, no established strong opinions on current events IRL, generally agreeable and likable, likes a good laugh, etc etc" better than they can with "James Florn, 45-year-old father of three who weighs 285 pounds, has VERY strong political opinions that affect how he treats ponies in Equestria, has a beard, likes to wear hats, and doesn't think Twilight Sparkle is very nice, and has values that some of you might not agree with".
It's to the point where people on the /mlp/ board might even drop a story entirely if Anonymous consistently does something very unusual - something that the average person wouldn't do. Like, showing no fear in the face of death; having no trouble with killing someone; having a very strong opinion on a specific character; having strong interests in unusual fields; being a genius; being really stupid; being unnaturally skilled in something; showing ponies his favourite music; whatever. The more specific you make Anonymous's tastes and personality, the less people on /mlp/ like him; the less people can identify with him. Anonymous is built around self-insert, and making him too much of a character ruins that. He's not MEANT to be a character like Matt or Cory or Samantha - he's mean to be YOU. It's YOU. The story is in a second-person format so that you can read how things are happening to YOU.
If the purpose of the story is to allow the reader to slip into the world as a part of the story (YOU talk to Applejack, YOU take a tour of the castle with Celestia, YOU punch Lyra in the throat), then Anonymous is not lazy; he's quite simply the right tool for the job. Nothing more, nothing less; you want to self-insert, you use the vessel most suitable to make self-insert easy and painless. But if you have a story where Anon is just the human character is an actual character who could have been a real human with a real personality, and it's in 3rd person so it isn't even addressing you as though you were in the story... then yeah, I can agree that Anon would be a lazy character.
I find it lazy as hell. I'm not some weirdo narcissist. I just want to READ A STORY. I don't want to be involved in some weird role-play. I'm not a young girl (this is pertinent, because if you ask enough, you'll find on average that they mentally self-insert themselves into any media they enjoy. Guys on average do not do that.). I'm just a guy who wants to read well-written stories. Give the dude a name and proceed with your story.
I also despise second-person stories. I hate having my actions dictated to me. The main characters do not act as I would and are generally out of shape dimwits and wimps. Again, I just want to read story happening to other people, I don't want to get involved in some role-play crap.